Tuesday, April 5, 2011

When I was young I was a very avid watcher of films both animated and live action. Of all the media that I ingested perhaps one of the most memorable films (besides the beautiful Jurassic Park) was the Rankin-Bass animated version of the Hobbit. It was this film that forever ingrained in me a visual language for the written world's of J.R.R Tolkien. Granted Peter Jackson's trilogy is a masterpiece, and while Andy Serkis gave a wonderful performance as gollum, Only the shrill rantings of Brother Theodore will ever truly be the voice of that character. Similarly the booming performance of Richard Boone as Smaug holds a similar power. We will see how Jackson and the marvelous crew at weta pull off this fiend both in appearance and in casting, but until then Cat-like dragon and his cold-blood voice will continue to be THE quintessential depiction of Tolkien's reptilian resident BA.

So in an atteempt to reconnect with my inspiration, to continue with my year of zbrushing, and to polish off the Tolkien Binge I have been on recently begun the process of modeling Smaug in 3D. The Ultimate goal would get him modeled, textured, skinned and animated in an environment to the voice work of the animated film. It is to be an adventure in pushing the envelope of my creative talents, and for once in my dang life see a project through. So with out any further ado here is my first update. This is however, the second design sculpt I have done and already I am liking the anatomy much better and, having taken some critique from my fellow art warriors at the office, I have added large horns and more mouth detail. The plates still need more polish and refinement fight now they don't blend. Also I a few scraggly teeth and some hornlets will do him quite well. So until next time enjoy and feel free to leave any crits in the comments